Antenna rotating apparatus



June 7, 1960 c. L. BRAUND ET AL 2,939,335

ANTENNA ROTATING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 24, 1957 m O 3 T 3 m V a a m 8 M0157. 2 u 3 Q l f 5 \6 5 S9 13 8 T w. 3 L b 8 8 M a 23 C.L,Braund and G.L.Brc1umd BY Q a ATTORNEY June 7, 1960 c. l... BRAUND E A 2, 3 ,335

ANTENNA ROTATING APPARATUS Filed June 24, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 3 I i 11 Cf- Eu 3 Ba 23 L l f i 29a 28 i, 35 2.6 2? 3?? 7 34 2 4E 7/28 s l' I a 5 w L l a4 47 45 43 Zia i INVENTORS C. L. Bvaund and G. L. Bvaund ATTORNEY ANTENNA ROTATING'APPARATUS Charles Lee Braund, 564 Breezy Bluff, and Gordon L. Braund, 446 Wentworth, both of Battle Creek, Mich.

Filed June 24, 1957, Set. No. 667,366

4 Claims. (Cl. 74-507) This invention relates broadly to rotatableapparatus, and in its specific phases to a new andimproved means for mechanically adjusting a rotary television antenna for reception from stations located in various directions from the locality in which the set is situated.

It is customary to mount a rotatable antenna either on the top of asuitable mast extending to the ground or building upon which same is mounted or upon a suitable antenna-carrying mast mounted, in turn, upon and at one side of a fixed supporting mast at the exterior of a dwelling or the like, the rotatable mast being secured in fixed position after aiming of the antenna in any desired direction. This permit reception from one or more stations in the general direction toward which the. antenna is aimed, but in order to better receive programs from stations located in other directions the antenna must be rotated to other suitable positions. Such an adjustment requires a complex electrical rotator apparatus, or if mechanical rotation is resorted to, this requires one person at the exterior of the house or other building to make the directional adjustment and another person watching the set to determine when the best reception has been attained.

While adjusters have been devised for effecting rotative antenna adjustments from the interior of a building, they are rather costly and not entirely successful and are therefore rather infrequently used. It was a recognition of this problem and a knowledge of the shortcomings of the previously proposed apparatus aimed at this problem, which led to the conception and development of the present invention.

Accordingly among the objects of the present invention is the provision of an exceptionally simple and inexpensive adjusting means for this purpose, yet one which will be easy to operate and is highly effective. Another object of this invention is to provide a gear casing located at the lower end of the rotatable mast carrying the an tenna, said casing containing gearing connected with this mast for rotating it; a drive shaft being provided for this gearing and adapted to extend to the interior of the building and into a second gear casing for mounting on one of the building walls. Said second gear casing containing manually operable gearing for rotating the drive shaft, the last mentioned gearing being provided with a hand knob for actuating it.

Another object of the invention is to provide for utilizing the fixed mast as a support for the external gear casing.

Another object is to provide the external gear casing with a seat to engagethe side of a fixed mast and to provide a clamp member cooperablewith this seat in clamping said external casing to said fixed mast. Yet another object is to provide for easily and adjustably couplingone of the gears in the external casing to the lower end of the rotatable mast. l

A further object is to make novel provision for clamping the internal gear casing against a'wall of the building and permitting weather-tight passage of the drive shaft 2,939,335 Patented June 7, 1960 from the external gear casing through said wall and into said internal casing.

A further object is to provide means for limiting the rotation ofthe antenna to one complete revolution so as to avoid undesirable winding of the lead-in wires around the antenna mast.

A still further object isto make novel provision at the interior of the. building for showing the direction toward which the antenna is pointed.

Yet another object is to provide friction brake means for holding the adjusting means against movement under the influence of all except unusually strong winds, and

to make other simple provision to prevent such unusually strong winds from causing maladjustment.

Still further objects and advantages of this invention will appear as the description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, consists of the means hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the annexed drawings and the following descript-ion setting forth in detailcertain means for carrying out the invention, such means illustrating, however, but one of various ways in which the principle of the invention may be used. V

In the annexed drawings:

Figure l is a side elevation showing an assembly .em-'.

bodying the invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken on line 22 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows. i

Figure 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Figure 2, looking in the direction of the arrows. Figure4 is an enlarged front elevation of the internal gear casing. Figure 5 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view better showing the elements at the lower end ofthe in-' ternal gear casing.

A fixed mast 10, Figure 1, is shown secured by brackets 11-to one wall 12 of a structure, such as a building, and

extending somewhat into the ground as usual. The upper end portion of this fixed mast is provided with a side mounted bearing sleeve 13 th-rough which the rotatable clamping means 17. This casing contains two intermeshing bevel gears 18 and 19, the gear 18 being con beaiing 25 at one vertical side of the casing 16, and the outer end of said shaft 24 is connected by a universal joint 26 man operating shaft 27. This shaft 27 extends into a second gear casing 28 secured against the inner side of the building wall 12. Within said inner casing 28, a relatively large gear 29 is conventionally secured tothe shaft 27, such as by means of pin 29a,,said gear being in mesh with a comparatively small pinion 30. Thispinion is conventionally anchored 'on shaft 31, as i by means of pin 30a, and such shaft extends through" a bearing '32 and is provided with a hand knob33,

The ratio of the pinion 30 and gear 29 is preferably about.one-to-twelve to allow easy rotation of the mast; 14 by turning of the knob 33; and the ratio of the gears 18 and 19 is preferably one-to-oneoto cause one complete revolution of the large gear teeth of the pinion 30.

- mast 10. y

29 to effect one com plete revolution of the mast 14. Large gear 29 is provided with stop means of conventional for-m limiting the rotationof sameto substantially one revolution, andone form of same, 'as diagrammatically shown in Figure. 4, consists of-a plug 48 between teeth of gea'r29,la'nd which may beat any preselected point such as at the N as shown. The gear 29 may carry equallyspaced indicating means visible selectively through a view opening 34 in the front plate 28a ofithe casing 28, tols'how the direction in, which the'antenna is aimed. The indicating means is preferably constituted by conventional markings, for instance by the four' letters N, S, E, and W representing theI-fourmain points of a' compass. The initial adjustment of the assembly is easily accomplished, for instance,

the antenna can be aimed in a predetermined direction, such as East, thengear 29 is adjusted so that the symbol toward the South, for example, it is simply necessary to Y turn the knobf33 until the letter-S is visible at the opening 34. 'Antenna aiming in other directions, even to marked spots for local TV stations maybe effected with equal ease. Y

To prevent any normal wind from blowing the antenna from a position at which it has been set,-friction brake means is associated-with the pin'ion shaft 31,'as best seen in Figure A brake washer 35 surrounds this shaft131" tion upon the invention.

. television antenna has been provided, and is adapted for ,attainingthe desired ends. However, attention is invited to the possibility of making variations within the spirit and scope of the invention as herein shown and described. Moreover, it is to be understood that directional terms such as f frqnt, backji flipper, lower, upwardly, vertical, et cetera, have been used to facilitate describing the invention and are not to be considered as a limita- Other modesof applying the principle of our invention may be employed instead ofthe one explained, change casing to extend through the building wall, a weather seal surrounding the outer end portion of said tubularbearing to abut the building wall, aclampingnut threaded on the outer end of said tubular bearing to clamp said weather seal against the outer side of'the building wall and said casing against the inner side of this wall, arigid between the bearing 32 and the hub 33a of the knob 33; a I

, thrust washer 36 surrounds said shaft- 31 andabuts'the;

pinion'30; and a spririgwasher 37 of conventional form is interposed between said thrust washer 36 and the front plate 28a of the casing 28. The spring washer 37 exerts:

endwise pressure onthe shaft 31'to hold the brakewasher I V 35 frictionally engaged with the bearing 32 and hub 33a;

Therefore, the shaft 3 1 is frictionally held so that it can- 1 not be turned under the influence of any normal wind pressure against the antenna. To prevent maladjustment of theantenna by wind pressure when wind of unusually high velocityisblowing, a s'etscrew 38 is threaded,

through'the lower end of thecasing28-to engage between 39, for firmly gripping these screws is shown at '46 in Figure'Z;

'A collar 47; Figures 2 and 3,is'sho'wn onthe'shaft 27 and abutting-the outer end of the tubular bearing 42 to preventthis shaft from. possibly shifting inwardly and allowing the gear 29 to drag on the casing'front plate 28d, as such dragging would injure thedirection indicating marking on said gear. The gearcasing' 16 is by preference formed of'two 1 duplicatejsectio'ns as shown. The 'bearing 21a of the lowersection, which corresponds with the bearing 21 of the; upper section, serves to. drain out any water which mayemer the-casing;

The gear casing 28 is prefer-ably mounted as seenini Figure 2. A tubular bearing 42 is secured at 43 to. the back wall 28b of thecasing :28 and extends outwardly through the wall 12, said bearing 42 receiving-the operat I ing shaft 27. At the outer end of the bearing 42 same is provided with'a' weather seal 44 and with a clamping nut 45. Tightening of this nut 45 notonly holds the seal'44 tight against the wall 12 but clamps the casing '28 against said wall, As a precaution against rotationiof this cas-. 7 ing, however, the same screws which secure the casing front plate 28a in place, preferably extend i-beyond the back wall 28b of the casing into the wall 12. One of I operating shaft extending through :said tubular bearing,

forcetransmitting means in' said casing and connected to said-operating shaft, said force transmittingmeans hav ing an accessible actuating knob, means for locking "said force transmitting means in fixed-position so as to hold said antenna against drifting under wind pressure, and antenna mast-rotating means operatively connected with the outer end of said operating shaft.

7 2. In an antenna adjusting'means for use with rotatable outdoor type antennas, agea'r casing for contact with and mounting on the inner'side of a building wall, a

. tubular bearing secured to and projectinghorizontally 'threaded on the ,outer 'end of said tubular. bearing to clamp said -weather-seal against the outer side, of the bu lding wall and-said, gear casing against theinner side oi this wall, a rigid operating shaft extending through said tubular bearing, gearing in said gear casing'and connected to said operatingshaft, said gearing havingan'accessible actuating knob, means for locking said gears in fixed position so as to hold said antenna against drifting under wind pressure, and antenna mast-rotating means opera lively connected with. the; outer lend of said operating shaft.

- 3 A structure as specified in claim 2;; together with'a References Citedlin the file of thi patent J f UNITED STATESIPATENTS'. 478,763 sava eja e a ;Jul 12,1892.

1,588,039, :Monosmith f June 8, 1926 2,250,097 7 Campiongmn July122,-1941 9 (Other references summing age) 7 r UNITED STATES PATENTS French; June 4, 1946 Aitcheson July 6,1948 Klein May 8, 1951 5 Merkle Jan. 1, 1952 Edwards Jan. 22, 1952 Dukes Oct. 27, 1953 6 Raymond Aug. 10, 1954 Gray Dec. 20, 1955 Will Feb. 28, 1956 Chadowski et a1 July 31, 1956 Beldt Oct. 9, 1956 Pressey Jan. 21, 1958 Wildberg Aug. 19, 1958 Silverman Jan. 20, 1959 

